Contrary to the narrative pushed by Russian propaganda, Ukraine has so far been winning the war. …

… The Russians are trying to create the impression that they are relentlessly advancing, but the fact is that, since the spring of 2022, they have failed to conquer any target of major strategic importance such as the cities of Kyiv, Kharkiv or Kherson.

In 2025, at a cost of around 200,000 to 300,000 soldiers killed and injured, the Russian army has so far managed to capture just a thin sliver of frontier zone amounting, according to the most reliable sources, to around 0.6 per cent of Ukraine’s total territory. At the rate they have been going in 2025, it would theoretically take the Russians around 100 years and tens of millions of casualties to conquer the rest of Ukraine. In fact, in August 2025, Russia controlled less of Ukraine’s territory than it did in August 2022.

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…  By spreading propaganda that Russian victory is inevitable, the Russians hope the Americans and Europeans will lose heart, withdraw their support from Ukraine and force it to surrender.

Succumbing to this propaganda will be a disaster not only for Ukraine, but for Nato countries that would lose much of their credibility, as well as their best defence against growing Russian threats. …

… War is the continuation of politics by other means. War is not won by the side that conquers more land, destroys more cities, or kills more people. War is won by the side that achieves its political aims.

And in Ukraine, it is already clear that Putin has failed to achieve his chief war aim — the destruction of the Ukrainian nation. …

… Nations aren’t made of clumps of earth or of drops of blood. They are made of stories, images and memories in people’s minds. No matter how the war unfolds in the coming months, the memory of the Russian invasion, of Russian atrocities and of Ukrainian sacrifices, will continue to sustain Ukrainian patriotism for generations to come.